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Madison Scouts now officially co-ed


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48 minutes ago, GREENBLUE said:

I have a question for you? Not trying to sound rude, more so curious. You say you marched with the Scouts, but why did you leave them after three seasons to march the Blue Devils?

No harm in asking.  Thanks for the question!

 

I left because of many factors, but all surrounded issues with staffing and the current administration.  Here are few:

(1) I came in with Roger Carter and loved him as a caption head.  When he was (quite obviously before the end of the 2009 tour) going to be fired, I was unsure if I would want to march under a new staff for my age-out.

(2) I am an Eagle Scout, and always enjoyed Scouting in various forms.  To me, marching with Madison (outside of being a childhood dream), was something that seemed a natural expansion of that activity.  In Scouting, the boys/membership run the Troop (with adult supervision of course; I was everything from a Patrol Leader to Senior Patrol Leader and Junior Assistant Scoutmaster during my tenure in my Troop).  During my time at Madison, this was increasingly less of a factor.  That was quite off-putting to me, especially in my third year.  I was quite frustrated with my inability to voice my concerns (such as we were not being fed appropriately) and actively lead any of the newer/younger members other than those I was directly responsible for in the bassline and battery.

(3) Having lived with folks at my undergraduate institution who marched multiple corps, and had marched Blue Devils in prior years, I was encouraged to look elsewhere and took stock of various opportunities to do so.  I almost left in 2009 (for spots at Bluecoats or Cadets), but stayed in Madison due to my loyalty to the organization and its larger ideals.  I always wanted to do four years and age-out there until the politics of the organization became too hostile (in my opinion).  One example would be that it was super obvious to myself and some others from 2007-2008 that 2009 was a repeat of 2007 (at least in talent and somewhat design).  Many other vets seemed to be "drinking the koolaid" instead of recognizing this, and were falsely setting up a goal of finals when I thought the more appropriate goal was initiating new members into what it meant/means to be a "man of Madison," and enjoying the time we had together to make sure they could "stand on our shoulders" in the following years of their eligibility.  When these ideals (I have multiple tattoos related to my drum corps experience, including the 1997 pirate king) seemed to be put to the wayside, I made a decision to go somewhere else where my talents would be respected, and I could enjoy my age-out without worrying about fiscal solvency and loyalty to the administration.

(4) I marched in plenty of other organizations (both junior corps before Madison and also Rhythm X), and having seen a variety of forms of organizational dysfunction, realized that I just wanted some stability at the end of my career, and Blue Devils seemed to offer that more than anything else.  Plus, all my friends who had marched there had positive experiences, and said that they were treated like adults rather than children (during my time at Madison we went from being allowed off the busses and to purchase goods at all rest stops/fuel stops to only being allowed off at specified bathroom stops and not being able to purchase goods).

 

Probably some others, but that's the basic idea of it.  Please let me know if you have any other questions.  You can always DM me, too.

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2 minutes ago, GREENBLUE said:

But that’s not the case.

it was simply you are a male. 

You marched with us last year. 

We’re no longer having males in our guard.

audition for another corps.

We're agreeing with you. Now please apply the same logic to Scouts & Cavies.

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2 minutes ago, GREENBLUE said:

But that’s not the case.

it was simply you are a male. 

You marched with us last year. 

We’re no longer having males in our guard.

audition for another corps.

Again, I agree that they shouldn't have had that policy. I can't change what happened in the past, how do we make sure it doesn't happen in the future? The best way that I can see is making the last remaining corps that excludes women co-ed so that no other precedence exists for an all female guard. 

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1 minute ago, Jake W. said:

Please see my previous two posts where I quoted you to respond and agreed with you on the guard points. As I've said twice now, no WC corps in 2019 should be excluding a talented, hard working kid with a good attitude based solely on the kid's gender. That includes Crossmen/Phantom guard, and that includes Cavies & Scouts. Accept kids into your summer tour based on their abilities & work ethic, not their gender. 

We can agree to disagree.

that talented hard working kid can always choose to audition for another corps. The Cavaliers being all male does not stop your student from having the opportunity to march DCI. 

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11 minutes ago, dbc03 said:

Would you support a hypothetical corps that only allowed whites if there were 40 other corps that allowed other races?

If not why is gender different for you?

Not even going there. 

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1 hour ago, HockeyDad said:

That’s a statement I agree with 100 percent. I take this with a little more cynicism. I don’t think it’s change for the sake of change. I think the present (failed) administration is attempting to deflect accountability from themselves for the present competitive problems, and this is the reason for the timing of the change. 

 

We’re not so far apart on this. I’m trying my best not to be cynical about the motivation behind it. 

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1 hour ago, dbc03 said:

Great move, although many years overdue. Only one more corps to go

Not happening.

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Madison Scouts lost its identity and its credibility years  ago. Now I feel sure they just lost their alumni donations . 

 

They have lost alot more than what they think they may have gained 

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